304
THE NATIONAL GE
ing succeeded beyond its greatest expec
tations, now turns its attention to the
next great problem, that of finding in
other countries a market for the ever
increasing surplus which that energy
is producing at home.
In addition, however, to these pro
ducts of our fields, and mines, and for
ests, and factories, there are certain
articles required for use in manufactur
ing and for food and drink which we
do not and probably cannot produce
at home. The raw silk, and fibers, and
rubber, and cabinet woods, and chem
icals, and dyestuffs for use in manufact
uring; the tea, and coffee, and cocoa,
and sugar, and rice, and tropical fruits
and spices required as food and drink,
must be supplied in part or in whole from
abroad, and they form and must con
tinue to form an ever-increasing part of
our imports. We bring every day in
the year a million dollars' worth of these
tropical and subtropical products from
other countries. We want to pay for
these necessities of daily life-necessi
ties which we cannot produce at home
with the products of our farms and
mines and forests and factories, and
also find a market for the hundred mil
lions of dollars' worth of our surplus
that still remains after paying for all
these necessary imports.
It is because of these conditions, in
creasing in intensity as our surplus
grows and our demand for tropical
goods in exchange also grows, that we
are looking abroad with increased in
terest and anxiety every day, that our
manufacturers and merchants are build
ing and buying ocean fleets, that our
capitalists are extending their cable lines
to distant countries and islands, that
our producers are demanding an isth
mian canal, and that our people are
commanding the ownership by the
United States of tropical gardens which
may in time supply many of the articles
which we now buy in foreign countries
and open new markets for our own pro-
OGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
ductions. And it is to the Pacific that
we naturally look for this growth of
our commerce. Europe is, of course,
the natural market in which to sell our
foodstuffs and the materials used in
manufacturing, and we are also making
good headway there with certain classes
of our manufactures ; but it is from the
countries bordering upon the Pacific
that we draw a large share of our trop
ical and subtropical imports, and among
their enormous population-one-half the
population of the world-we should find
a large market for our surplus bread
stuffs and meats and manufactures.
But the exchange, under present con
ditions, is not easy. Our great produc
ing and consuming centers still lie in
the eastern half of the continent, and
while we have a magnificent system of
railroads connecting them with the Pa
cific coast, the relative cost of transpor
tation by rail is so much greater than
that by water that we cannot expect to
successfully compete in the struggle for
this Pacific commerce until direct water
transportation is supplied between the
initial points of production and consump
tion. Recent estimates of the cost of
transporting freights on the Great Lakes
compared with that on the railways of
the country showed that the average
rate per ton per mile was just one-ten/th
as much on the Lakes as on the rail
roads. While this is doubtless an ex
treme case, owing to the fact that the
Lake freights were chiefly grain, iron
ore, and coal, and the average distance
between points of shipment and dis
charge greater than that of the average
rail shipments, there can be no doubt
that the cost of water transportation is
much less than that by rail, even under
the most favorable conditions for the
latter. A single ocean vessel of modern
capacity will carry as much as 400 rail
way cars, or 20 trains of 20 cars each ;
and as a consequence the country which
can send its products by water, from the
door of the factory to the door of the